- ACTING ATTORNEY TESTIFIES ABOUT EFFORTS SUBVERT FULL
- ACTING ATTORNEY TESTIFIES ABOUT EFFORTS SUBVERT TRIAL
Several members of the far-right Proud Boys, including the former national chairman Enrique Tarrio, are also scheduled to go to trial on sedition charges in December. Jury selection for a second group of Oath Keepers facing seditious conspiracy charges is scheduled to begin next week. On trial alongside Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, and Meggs, were Kenneth Harrelson, another Florida Oath Keeper Thomas Caldwell, a retired navy intelligence officer from Virginia and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia group. Rhodes did not commit the crime of seditious conspiracy," Tarpley said. "We feel like we presented a case that showed through evidence and testimony that Mr. Another Rhodes lawyer, Ed Tarpley, described the verdict as a "mixed bag," adding: "This is not a total victory for the government in any way, shape or form." Rhodes intends to appeal, defence attorney James Lee Bright told reporters. In this courtroom artist sketch, Rhodes, centre, is seated alongside co-defendants Thomas Caldwell, seated front row left Jessica Watkins, seated third from right Kelly Meggs, seated second from right and defendant Kenneth Harrelson, seated far right, at their trial in Washington on Oct. Rhodes and Meggs are the first people in nearly three decades to be found guilty of sedition, a rarely used Civil War-era charge. Seditious conspiracy calls for up to 20 years behind bars. Jurors found all five defendants guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding: Congress's certification of Biden's electoral victory.
One of Rhodes' co-defendants - Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers - was also convicted of the sedition charge, while three other co-defendants were cleared of the charge. Over seven weeks of testimony, jurors heard how Rhodes rallied his followers to fight to defend Trump, discussed the prospect of a "bloody" civil war and warned that the Oath Keepers may have to "rise up in insurrection" to defeat Biden if Trump didn't act. Using dozens of encrypted messages, recordings and surveillance video, prosecutors made the case that shortly after the 2020 election, Rhodes began to prepare an armed rebellion to stop the transfer of presidential power. Attorney General Merrick Garland recently named a veteran prosecutor, Jack Smith, to serve as special counsel to oversee key aspects of a probe into efforts to subvert the election and a separate investigation into the retention of classified documents at Trump's Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. It is also likely to embolden investigators, whose work has expanded beyond those who attacked the Capitol to focus on others linked to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
ACTING ATTORNEY TESTIFIES ABOUT EFFORTS SUBVERT FULL
The verdict marks a significant milestone for the Justice Department and is likely to clear the path for prosecutors to move ahead at full steam in upcoming trials of other extremists accused of sedition. 6, 2021, insurrection.Ī Washington jury found Rhodes guilty of sedition after three days of deliberations in the nearly two-month-long trial that showcased the far-right extremist group's efforts to keep Republican Donald Trump in the White House at all costs. Rhodes was acquitted of two other conspiracy charges.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted Tuesday of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to overturn Democrat Joe Biden's presidential win, handing the Justice Department a major victory in its massive prosecution of the Jan.
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